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Thursday, December 07, 2017


Just Finished Reading: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (FP: 1933)

In the late 1920’s George Orwell, then known by his real name Eric Blair, found himself close to abject poverty after having the majority of his money stolen from his room. Forced to look for any kind of paying work before his rent ran out and he was cast on to the streets of Paris he finally got lucky by gaining a position of a plongeur – the lowest of the low in a hotel hierarchy: a washer of dishes, a chopper of vegetables, someone who does any task that no one else will do, do it quickly, for 15-16 hours a day and for a subsistence wage. Already familiar with a strange host of characters from all over the Continent he found himself surrounded by Russian emigres, Italian thieves, and Romanian Communists. Everyone had a tragic story to tell, a reason for ending up and the bottom of the heap and some of them were even true – at least a little. With almost no disposable income, little prospect (but a lot of hope) for promotion and a deep fatigue caused by the long arduous hours of work followed by little sleep the only release was in cheap wine, loud company, bar fights and, very occasionally, a cheap prostitute. Orwell lasted several months in the position – briefly graduating to working flat out in a new restaurant – before returning to England. He was horrified to learn that other plongeurs do the job for decades just to keep their heads above water.

Aided by a friendly loan and the prospect of an easy job Orwell returned to London only to discover that his new post – looking after an invalid – had been delayed by a month. Once again flat bloke, only this time in London, he needed to adapt swiftly to his new circumstances and he did so by falling in with a series of tramps shuffling between hostels in the South East of England. Again each tramp had his story of how he fell on hard times and each showed, in their own way, a fortitude to continue when practically everything was taken from them. What made the experience that much worse was the way the Authorities made even straightforward things – like getting a bed for the night or some decent food – unnecessarily hard and, more to the point, demeaning. In the years before the Welfare State this was how the State treated the poor – as a burden to be shifted elsewhere rather than being dealt with at source.

Despite being well written I did start to struggle with this slim book (a mere 216 pages in my edition) thinking that it was all very well describing the lives of the poor in both London and Paris but where was the analysis – and then, after just over 100 pages, there it was, a devastating critique of not only the hotel system in France but the use of semi-literate workers to produce shoddy goods at minimum wage (practically starvation wages) in order to keep them ‘occupied and exhausted’ in order to prevent them raising up against their oppressors. Whereas, if the frightened ‘masters’ had spent any time actually talking to them they would have discovered that all most people want is a roof over their head, food in their bellies, a bed to sleep in and something to look forward to in their leisure time. Violent revolution hardly enters a single head – exhausted and poorly educated or not. Clearly, he repeatedly pointed out, the poor and the tramps are not different people from the rich (or simply the employed) they are essentially the same – just with vastly different resources.

I suppose that I shouldn’t have really but I was both surprised and a little disappointed that Orwell didn’t propose some kind of Welfare State to deal with the issue and consequences of widespread unemployment. Of course this is doing him a huge disservice. The Welfare State in its early incarnation was a consequence of decades of experience accumulated in the decades after Orwell’s time in Paris and London. He could hardly look 20 years ahead and pluck such ideas even partially formed out of thin air. This was an interesting read and a welcome reminder of what the poor had to suffer before the late 1940’s. No doubt there are those in the so-called higher echelons of society who would like to bring these days back when the poor where motivated by fear to ‘behave themselves’. With first-hand accounts of what that policy meant to the men and women at the bottom of society such as this still in circulation maybe we won’t have to fight those battles again any time soon. Recommended for all social and political historians.

6 comments:

Brian Joseph said...

I really need to read more Orwell. I have only read Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm. At the very least this sounds like it is valuable in understanding the evolution of his ideas.

The fact that poor people are more interested in life's necessities then they are in revolution is a fact that has been lost on a lot of people for a very long time.

Mudpuddle said...

actually, in some parts of the US, people do live this way; particularly in the deep south and big cities... Stephen wrote a good piece on this book also, as you are most likely aware...

CyberKitten said...

@ Brian: So far 1984, Animal Farm, Catalonia & this one. Definitely more from Orwell in my future.

Totally agree that the rich are afraid of the poor for all the wrong reasons.

@ Mudpuddle: Pockets of poverty exist in even the riches countries in the world. I find it all very bizarre.

Stephen said...

The problem in the United States is especially aggravated by the cost of housing -- codes and regulations have made it too expensive to build anything other than detached family homes in the countryside. That was one thing that stuck out at me in reading "NIckle and Dimed"...even two minimum wage salaries would not have covered rent in the areas the author was testing. There's public housing, but deep concentrations of poverty are a really bad idea given the gangs and violence that result. That's one of the reasons I've gotten into better urbanism over the past ten years, besides my childhood interest in the systems (transport, electricity, plumbing, etc) that sustain them.

Marianne said...

Interesting. I am really looking forward to this book. As you know, I have it on my Classics Spin list. Thanks for the link.

Marianne said...

I finished the book as part of my "Paris in July" challenge. It was an interesting read though not what I expected. Should have re-read your review first (though I usually try to avoid that, I want to get my own impression).

But yes, as I said, interesting. And I'm glad I read it. But I totally agree with your criticism.

My review.